The standard American diet “SAD” is indeed a sad diet, not just boring and bland, it is indeed a “starvation diet that makes you fat!” The Standard American Diet consists of a myriad of processed carbohydrates (cereals, breads, pasta, cookies, cakes etc.), processed meat products, and just a few fruits and veggies. Basically, this diet is high in many things you don’t need. It is full of hydrogenated “TransFat” oil, high fructose corn syrup “HFCS”, phytic acid, acrylamide, sodium nitrate, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lacking in basic essentials such as vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

causes a host of problems. It contributes to cancer, heart disease and obesity. A recent study showed that monkey fed these oils gained a significant amount of fat around the abdomen, even though they were not fed in such excess as to warrant fat gain. This is bad! Fat gain without consuming extra calories and around the worst place on the body to gain it too, is one of the worst things for your health. We also know that TransFat boosts women’s infertility by 70%, if you consume it for 2% of your total calories. For someone on a 2000 calories a day diet, that is only about 4 grams of fat. And 4 grams of fat is not a lot! You could get that much in one donut, or a small serving of fries.

raises blood sugar levels quickly. There are links to the consumption of HFCS to type II diabetes and heart disease. It provides no nutritional value, and is the ubiquitous sweetener for foods that are known as “empty calories” – why? – Because it is cheap and consumers want lots of it – because unlike sugar, there is no feeling of satiety with HFCS, so nothing is telling the brain when enough is enough.

Phytic acid has been proven to be an “anti-nutrient and an enzyme inhibitor.” It is in all grains, nuts and seeds that have not been soaked and dried first. If you are eating boxes of food that are grain based, not only are you eating something that has no nutrition, you are also eating something that will readily take nutrients from you.

Acrylamide C3H5NO

If you eat anything with carbohydrates heated to a high temperature, you are eating acrylamide. Higher levels of acrylamide develop during baking of whole grain bread where the grains come from depleted soil. The EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) has stated that possible short-term effects of ingesting acrylamide are damage to the nervous system, weakness and in-coordination in the legs. The possible long-term effects are damage to the nervous system, paralysis, and cancer. Acrylamide and furan develop in food processing as contaminants and in fried or baked goods acrylamides is produced by the reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars or reactive carbonyls. Browning during baking, frying, deep-frying, over-cooking or microwaving of foods will produce acrylamides, even more so, when the grains were grown in nutrient depleted soil.

Sodium Nitrate NaNO2

Consumption of processed meats has been linked to cancer (colon, breast, prostate and pancreas). The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for sodium nitrate states that ingestion in the pure form could cause gastroenteritis and abdominal pains. Other symptoms may include dizziness, bloody diarrhea, convulsions, and collapse; and chronic exposure can cause methemoglobinemia. This happens in some individuals when bacteria in the stomach convert the nitrate to nitrite. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, irregular breathing, convulsions, coma, and death can occur should this conversion take place. If you truly don’t want to give up your bacon, salami or whatever there is a way to fight the harm that sodium nitrate can inflict on your body. You have to consume large doses of vitamins C and E before you eat something with sodium nitrate in it. These wonderful vitamins inhibit the conversion of sodium nitrate to the carcinogenic form, nitrosamines.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

is in a class of chemicals known as excitotoxins. Excitotoxins, like MSG, introduced to the body in high doses have been shown in animal studies to cause damage to areas of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier. A variety of chronic diseases can arise out of this neurotoxicity. In other animal research, MSG has been shown to indirectly cause obesity. According to laboratory studies, the chemical does this by down-regulating hypothalamic appetite suppression which increases the amount of food animals consume. This is another universal ingredient and can be found under names such as natural flavors, hydrolyzed yeast, spices, autolyzed yeast and other deceiving terms.

Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet is full of packaged foods. Most packaged foods have virtually no nutritional value! They are pretty packages housing calories. If this is all you eat, then you are on the fast track to being overfed, read: getting fat; and under nourished, read: starve to death. Eating a diet rich in refined carbohydrates and processed meat products is a sure fire way to walk the path of disease.

Contamination

Foodborne diseases are estimated to cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.1 Nationwide product recalls highlight the devastating effects foodborne illnesses can have: In 2006, contaminated peanut butter caused more than 300 people to become ill, of whom at least 50 were hospitalized, while in 2007, contaminated spinach caused 206 illnesses, three deaths, and more than 100 hospitalizations. Most recently, the United States Department of Agriculture recalled 143 million pounds of beef—35 million pounds of which had entered a school lunch program—in the nation’s largest food recall, highlighting the need for better tracking and audit trails of food.

What we eat affects behavior

Food additives and poor diet could help explain poor school performance, criminal behavior, alcoholism, and the growing numbers of Alzheimer's patients.

According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, high sugar content and starchy carbohydrates lead to excessive insulin release, this in turn leads to falling blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia causes the brain to secrete glutamate in levels that can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and an increase in suicide risk.

The glutamate that causes this is identical to the flavor-enhancing monosodium glutamate (MSG) and its chemical cousins, which are found in thousands of food products, further exacerbating the problem.

Repeated hypoglycemic episodes increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's). In children, hypoglycemia often leads to hyperactivity. In both children and adults, it can cause violent and aggressive behavior. In older people, there can be mental confusion.

An anti-hypoglycemic diet would consist of lean meat and lots of fresh vegetables. Another key is limiting sugars and starches.

Why do Americans eat themselves sick?

1. Price

There is one primary reason....price. While many Americans have to stretch their food dollars by necessity, others just don’t care to spend more than minimal amounts on food. The Fast Food Industry has long recognized that fact and advertises huge quantity for lowest price – servings that appear much cheaper than any conventional meal.

Why is unhealthy food cheaper than healthy food? Because the U.S. government subsidizes unhealthy foods (like meats, soda, sweets, chips, packaged foods etc); but not healthy, fresh, whole foods. Corn is a good example, with $42 billion of subsidies annually. Corn is used for many things, including the production of HFCS, high fructose corn syrup. Over the past 30 years, the price of high fructose corn syrup has decreased 30% while the average price of fresh vegetables has increased by 50%. Today, Americans are gobbling up all this cheap sugar and get almost 10% of their calories from HFCS.

2. Quantity

Unfortunately Americans love mega-doses of food, the bigger the portion for the dollar the better. Never mind what it tastes like, or if tastes at all, huge it has to be! The food industry complies: it produces huge portions of empty calories aggressively advertises make-believe values. Case in point, a mega-size soft drink consists of a bucket full of ice cubes (frozen tap water) with the spaces filled with HFCS loaded soda. No one seems to care that there is no nutritional value as long as it looks huge for the money and implies the bigger size is the better bargain.

3. Perceived Flavor

What flavor , is there any? Not any natural one, but sugar, fat, and salt fire up the taste buds and provide the illusion that food "tastes" good. So people end up eating these make-believe foods because they provide the intense flavor illusions – and they quickly get addicted to these sensations. Unfortunately, people don't pay much attention to how they feel 10 minutes after ingesting these calories. Unfortunately, if all they eat is junk food, feeling crappy afterwards is status quo, so they don't know what they're missing.

4. Convenience

To a foreign observer it seems that Americans hate to eat and they consider eating a waste of time. How else could one explain that people prefer to warm up a frozen pizza or stop at a Burger's drive- through rather than to buy some fresh food and prepare it, or sit down at a table and get served with a freshly made meal? We have gotten used to “do things” while we eat and people prefer the “to go” servings, because now they can eat while driving, watching TV or working at a desk or work bench.

What about the Rest of the World?

While the SAD is sadly American, unfortunately the rest of the World seems to be all too keen to adopt the “Convenience Food craze ” that comes from the U.S. Even countries and cultures that openly condemn U.S. lifestyle have either opened up to U.S. Fast Food chains, or copied them. It seems that the reason why the obesity problem in these countries has not reached U.S. proportions is because they eat smaller portions and consume Fast Food less often – and because their government does not subsidize Fast Food and thus it may be relative costlier. Japan crafted its own compromise that suits its culture of beauty in presentations that does not stop short of convenience: take-out food in “bentos” is wrapped like presents and millions are sold every day for people on the go. Then, convenience food comes at a cost . In order to get back to the office on time, or save yourself from the kitchen after a grueling day, you will pay. You’ll pay with inattentive service, overdone eggs, greasy fries, lukewarm soup, burnt toast, and unripe tomatoes, to name a few. Then there’s the financial cost. It costs your wallet as much as your palate – and your Vitality - to consume wilted lettuce. In sum, you relinquish a good deal of satisfaction for the sake of efficiency.

1. The term “Convenience Food” reaches far beyond “Fast Food” which is commonly associated with an eatery. Commonly used convenience is opening canned food instead of cooking, microwaving food to save time to heat it up slowly and to buy packaged, prepared food that can be eaten out of the box. There is much more to pay for these foods than what it costs to buy them: we sacrifice the pleasure of eating in style with friends and family and we pay with the loss of health later, because we can’t properly digest these foods which are devoid of nutrients.